The Uttarakhand government has decided to constitute a new SIT under the supervision of a retired Supreme Court judge to investigate the sensational paper leak case that forced youths to come out on the road in protest against the government.
Chief secretary Anand Bardhan announced on Wednesday that the government has decided to constitute an SIT to probe the leakage of a portion of question paper of Uttarakhand Subordinate Services Selection Commission (UKSSSC) examination on September 21.
“The decision has been taken to maintain complete transparency and candidates’ confidence in the probe and the system. The SIT will be headed by an additional superintendent rank police officer under the supervision of a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India,” Anand Bardhan said.
“The SIT’s mandate will be to probe the matter with its scope being the entire state with complete access to every information needed by it. Any individual from the public having information pertaining to leakage of questions can share it with the SIT. Contact details of the SIT will be made public after the SIT is formalised today or by tomorrow,” he added.
Bardhan informed that the SIT will have to submit its report to the government within a month’s time. Bardhan made it clear that the ongoing probe into the leakage of 12 questions from the UKSSSC exam questions paper will go on under the leadership of Dehradun SP Rural Jaya Baluni.
The chief secretary further informed that UKSSSC has also been asked to stop all further processes of recently-held examinations till the report of the SIT is received.
It’s notable that UKSSSC conducted an examination on September 21 to fill vacancies for patwaris, BDOs and other subordinate cadre posts in different departments. However, a candidate, identified as Hamid, managed to click pictures of three pages of the question paper and sent them to his sister Sabia within half an hour of the examination. Hamid had conspired with Sabia to get the leaked questions solved once he sent them through WhatsApp but the matter came into public domain and the duo was arrested.
The question paper leak triggered massive protests across the state. The candidates who took the UKSSSC exam on Sunday, members of the Unemployed Youths Association and other organisations had been protesting on the roads for the past three days.